Author: soccershortsblog

From yesterday but now with additional adequacy.

It’s probably crept up on most of us but the Vancouver Whitecaps seem to have transformed into a decent MLS team.

Not a great one by any means, but certainly one that can defend well, control a midfield and fire in enough shots to keep the gods of xG happy.

And the fact that they’re unafraid to move the ball forward, even when on the road, also makes them a a decent team to watch.

How did this happen?

Well, three in midfield has certainly made the biggest difference. No longer having vast open swathes of pitch for the opposition to run into must make defending easier. And Sartini’s revolutionary tactic of allowing the defence to get to know each other rather than swapping and switching players and systems on a whim has definitely produced more solidity.

The arrival of Takaoka shouldn’t be underestimated either. Sure he’s good with his feet and makes a save or two, but he also exudes an air of calm that must be reassuring to play in front of.

There are still issues going forward but Gressel and Ahmed both have a yearning to progress the ball which makes the whole team more dangerous to play against.

And the way they progress the ball helps the team too. Gressel has never seen a ball he doesn’t want to either fire at goal as though he’s trying to make it explode or whip into the area with a first time hit. While Ahmed favours keeping the ball at his feet and trying to beat a man or two. They complement each other nicely.

The haters will probably focus on the White miss in the second half but, right now, it feels as though the biggest difference maker would be Ryan Gauld being involved in games for the full ninety minutes.

The Scot once again flickered and then faded in the 0-0 tie with Austin on Saturday evening

Simon Becher has also been promoted to starting duties too quickly it seems and the presence of Vite would create more clear cut chances in the long run.

But these are fairly minor complaints compared to what has gone before for this club.

A few games ago it felt as though Sartini was living game by game. But he’s managed to find a starting eleven that mostly works while also having players on the bench who can fill in nicely. He’s safe for a few more games at least.

If they keep trying to do the right things then the right things will eventually happen.

Could it be possible that we are entering a period of unprecedented competency and stability in the world of the Whitecaps?

Time for the Soccer Shorts player ratings!

Takaoka-6, Brown-5.5, Veselnovi-6, Blackmon-6, Martins-5, Cubas-6.5*, Ahmed-5.5, Gressel-5.5, Gauld-4.5, Becher-4, White-5 (Vite-4)

Not much to say about this second leg rout really.

But.

1. Let’s hope this game sated Vanni Sartini’s thirst for playing players who aren’t central defenders in central defence.
2. Let’s also hope that the team can shrug off this second game as well as they did the first.
3. Nobody who wasn’t already in the thinking for the actual starting eleven did anything to convince the coach otherwise.

Time for the Soccer Shorts player ratings!

Hasal-3*, Raposo-3, Ahmed-3, Veselinovic-3, Brown-3, Teibert 3, Berhalter-3, Gauld-3, Caicedo-3, Dajome-3, White-3 (Blackmon-3, Vite-3, Ngando-3, Gressel-3, Laborda-3

Point: This five goal victory was against the worst team in MLS who were down to ten men midway through the first half.

Counterpoint: Montreal were only down to ten men because the Whitecaps were already causing them problems and Vancouver have struggled against poor teams more times than one may care to remember in the past.

But this victory was forged in the metal of WFC2.

Simon Becher continued his remarkable (and unsustainable) scoring run. Although the way he linked up with the rest of the team was perhaps even more important than the goals.

And Ali Ahmed produced one of the best attacking midfield performances from a Whitecaps player for many a moon.

Ahmed showed the value of having a midfielder who is willing to run at the opposition with the ball at his feet and the value of having a midfielder who is willing to support the attack when the ball isn’t at his feet.

If nothing else Becher and Ahmed have issued a wake up call to their more senior colleagues.

Nobody played badly of course, but Javain Brown showed more quality on the final ball than thus far this season and Julian Gressel was almost as much of a threat as Ahmed.

The optimist would say that this result had been coming and that Vancouver can now settle into the season and move up the standings.

The pessimist would say that Sartini will see this as a license to continue to mix and match who he plays and where he plays them and so the chance of the team gaining momentum will constantly be stalled.

But credit to the coach for this one.

The Whitecaps didn’t just win. They won by playing open and expansive football.

Long may that continue.

It’s time for the Soccer Shorts player ratings!

Takaoko-5, Brown-6.5, Martins-5.5, Veselinovic, 5, Blackmon-5, Cubas-5.5, Ahmed-7*, Gressel-6.5, Vite-6, White-6, Becher-6.5 (Laborda-5, Teibert-4.5, Berhalter4.5)

From last night but now with additional meanderings.

Who knows why Director of Recruitment Nikos Overheul really left the Vancouver Whitecaps this week?

Well, quite a few people know obviously, but not the fans of the club who were left to wonder, once again, if there was anybody really steering the good ship Whitecap.

Maybe Overheul has been offered a better job? Maybe he’s tired of seeing the players he’s signed being played in unfamiliar positions? Maybe he grew weary of recruiting for one system of play and discovering that the coach had moved on to another? Maybe he’s just going to Goa to find inner peace?

Laborda at right back is text book Sartini. Take a player and try to make him fit into a role he isn’t used to. See the myriad wing backs from last season for further reference.

Whatever the reason he will no doubt have been watching his former team struggle to a 1-1 tie in Minnesota on Saturday evening.

To be fair to the Whitecaps they were missing two players to international duty. But, to be fair to Minnesota, they were missing eight players to international duty and featured more debutantes than a BBC adaptation of a Jane Austen novel.

Given the above a 1-1 tie is a pretty poor result. But the nature of it (a ninety-eighth minute equalizer when only six minutes of stoppage time were called for) will probably be enough to stave off the wolves that have been surrounding Vanni Sartini of late.

Whether that turns out be a blessing or a curse in the long run is a matter for debate but all the old failings were still there for this Vancouver team.

Decent possession at times, but a lack of both confidence and guile as soon as the ball got near to the opposition penalty area. An over reliance on set-pieces when it came to threatening the opposition goa and the inability to defend crosses.

Schopff seems to be going under the radar both in terms of his overall play and the avoidance of criticism. The midfield is better this season but rarely does he catch the eye or arrive in the box at the right time as he was predicted to do when signed.

Pedro Vite made a difference when he came on because, unlike Dajome, he has a vague notion of the right pass to play at the right time and Simon Becher once again showed more quality (and kicked the ball into the net!) than many more of his more highly paid colleagues.

It was Vite’s promotion to regular first team starts that gave the Whitecaps a glimmer of the playoffs last year. Why he’s not preferred over Dajome (who isn’t a number ten and who kills attacks with his inability to find the final pass) is a mystery.

It’s impossible for Becher to keep up this scoring rate of course but he has undeniably earned more minutes and already looks a better option than the erstwhile Cordova.

The optimist may think that two road ties in LA and Minnesota is a pretty good foundation for the Whitecaps to build on during the upcoming home stand.

The regular Whitecaps watcher knows that the world doesn’t work like that.

Time for the Soccer Shorts player ratings!

Takaoka-5, Laborda-4.5, Raposo-4, Veselinovic-5, Blackmon-5, Berhalter-4.5, Schopff-3.5, Gressel-5, Gauld-4, Dajome-3, White-5 (Vite-5.5*, Becher-5.5, Ahmed-4)

From last night but now with additional contemplations.

A 1-1 tie on the road to the LA Galaxy isn’t the worst result in the world, but the Vancouver Whitecaps still resemble a work in flux more than they do a work in progress.

And that perception isn’t helped by the coach.

In this game Sartini started Cordova up front with White and Dajome as the de facto number tens. (Spoiler alert! White and Dajome and not number tens). And he elected to play the best number ten in the team as a midfielder.

Trying to turn Ryan Gauld into the new Russell Teibert seems a strange path to take but there we go.

Last season Sartini was probably saved by a cup competition, and there’s enough of those this year to give him some leeway. But Axel Schuster surely can’t be watching these performances and thinking that the coach is getting the best out of this squad?

Eventually even the footballing gods had seen enough of such nonsense and an injury to Cordova and the exhaustion of Dajome forced the coach to revert to a semblance of common sense.

The Cordova signing already looks snake bitten. But signing a front man who can’t press to a team that wants to press from the front will enhance that perception.

The Whitecaps weren’t great after those changes but they were better than they were before.

Now if they could just spend some time practicing how to kick the ball to a player in the same colour shirt when they reach the edge of the opposition penalty area they might start to win a game or two.

The lack of compusure on the final pass last night was almost hilariously bad and has to be a sympton of the lack of cohesion the team seems incapable of resolving.

Overall though this game didn’t feel like the renaissance this team needs. Nor did it even feel like the beginning of the end of the dark ages.

Not quite the Plague of Justinian perhaps, but certainly not the Code of Justinian.

Time for the Soccer Shorts player ratings!

Takaoka-5, Brown-5, Raposo-5.5, Veselinovic-5.5, Blackmon-6*, Cubas-6, Gressel-4.5, Gauld-5.5, Dajome-4, White-4, Cordova-3 (Vite-3.5)

There are some games of soccer of which it is best to say as little as possible.

And the Whitecaps 3-2 loss (7-3 win) against Real Espana was just such a game.

But….in brief.

The pitch was terrible.

Vite looked lively-ish

Yao looked worrisome.

Hasal looked both good and bad.

White looked much better than Cordova (and so did Becher really).

The Whitecaps still can’t defend against balls crossed into their box in the air.

Now let’s all move on from this shall we?

Time for the Soccer Shorts player ratings!

Hasal-6*, Laborda-5, Raposo-4.5, Blackmon-5, Yao-3.5, Berhalter-5, Ahmed-4, Ngando-4.5, Vite-5.5, Dajome-5, Cordova-4.5 (Brown-5, White-5)

What a frustrating afternoon of football that was.

The 1-1 tie with FC Dallas featured the visitors disrupting the rhythm of the game at every opportunity, a referee who often seemed to be buffering, so delayed and random were his decisions and because the Whitecaps failed to build on the momentum of the midweek 5-0 win.

One would have hoped they would come out from the first whistle pushing Dallas back toward their own goal but, instead, they allowed Dallas to make the early running, conceded in the first five minutes and spent the rest of the game never quite overcoming the hurdles needed to take all three points.

They came close at times, but it was mostly half chances rather than carving open their opponent in a way that the improved passing in the middle of the park should be leading to.

Partly that’s down to the final delivery.

Brown and Raposo word hard in getting up and down the field but the former lacks the quality of cross too often and the latter’s need to cut inside to get the delivery in allows the opposition defence time to settle.

That wouldn’t be as big an issue if there were better runners from midfield but, unlike in mid-week, that never really happened.

There’s also something incongruous about Sartini simultaneously claiming that his team played well while explaining why he changed the tactical set up twice in the second-half.

Starting the half with Cordova and White was a mistake (White is not a number ten) and then switching to three at the back to match up with Dallas was indicative of the kind of tactical tinkering that makes it harder for the players to settle into the game and feels more about the coach wanted to “do something” rather than being called for by the state of the game.

There are still promising signs however.

As mentioned earlier, the passing definitely is better. The depth of the squad should help given the numerous competitions the team are in and the spine of the team looks solid.

It’s now just about a finding a little more decisiveness and quality with the final ball, playing for the full ninety minutes and the coach trusting in his own process.

Time for the Soccer Shorts player ratings!

Takaoka-6, Brown-6, Raposo-5.5, Veselinovic-5.5, Blackmon-5, Cubas-6.5*, Gressel-5, Schopff-4.5, Dajome-4.5, Gauld-5.5, White-5.5 (Cordova-4.5)

Well that was better.

Let’s not pretend that Real Espana are the greatest team in the world, but the Whitecaps have lost to worse teams than that in the past.

The first half was fine but, in the second, as the Hondurans wilted the Whitecaps finally found the ability to punish a team when they were there to be punished.

It’s hard to imagine that even the Whitecaps can blow a 5-0 lead in the second leg.

Random thoughts on a few players.

Give Gauld players running in front of him and he will find them with a pass.

Raposo did more than enough to win back the left back role for Saturday’s game.

Blackmon may not be the most reliable defender at all times but he’s by far the best man to bring the ball out of the back and offer Vancouver the opportunity to disrupt the shape of an opponent.

Cordova did not look like a DP forward in this game. All lumbering runs and bad first touches.

This was Dajome’s best game for about a season and a half and probably the first game in that length of time that he’s genuinely looked like he wanted the ball. Let’s hope that continues.

New midfielder J.C. Ngando wasn’t given much time to show his worth but he has a likeable swagger of arrogance about him when he’s on the ball.

One swallow does not make a summer and one win does not make a season.

But the Whitecaps have shown they can create and finish chances. Now they need to do that on a regular basis.

Time for the Soccer Shorts player ratings!

Takaoka-5.5, Laborda-5.5, Raposo-6.5, Veselinovic-5.5, Blackmon-6, Cubas-6, Gressel-6, Gauld-6.5, Dajome-6.5*, Vite-5, Cordova-3